Large portions of hydrocarbon location and production activities involve drilling, pumping, and conduit installation beneath the surface of the earth. In addition, drilling, pumping and conduit installation operations may include water location and distribution. Drilling, pumping, and conduit installation operations may include sewage processing and distribution. Drilling and conduit installation operations may support installation of electrical power transmission lines and telecommunication industry transmission lines. Drilling, pumping, and conduit installation activities often use lengths of pipes. These pipes may be joined together in a variety of different manners. When pipes are joined, there are several considerations. For example, lengths of pipes often extend over long distances. Replacing broken connections may be difficult and timely. Also, drilling activities may require torque to be transmitted across numerous different pipes. Thus, a joint may need to be strong enough to transmit certain levels of torque and resist failure.
Additionally, certain industry standards regarding the diameters of pipe sections exist today. For example, standards exist about the diameters of the inside of pipes. These standards may maintain expected results for a capacity for flow through a string of joined pipes. Standards also exist about the outer diameter of pipes. These standards may maintain expectancies of certain pipes to fit within certain clearances. Thus, there may be limits on the sizes and thicknesses of materials used in the joint sections of the pipes.
Currently available solutions include threaded connections between pipe sections. The threads may be tightened together to form a connection between pipes. However, these types of connections may not transfer the same amount of torque while rotating both to the left and to the right. The threads may become unthreaded when the pipes are rotated in a certain direction and separate. Additional available solutions may involve adding teeth to the ends of joint sections using threaded connections. These teeth may be capable of transferring torque between sections of pipe even while the pipes are rotated in different directions. However, these connections using teeth may not produce desired results for strength in a pipe section.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method and apparatus, which takes into account one or more of the issues discussed above as well as possibly other issues.